Protesters in the Senate gallery interrupted a Senate vote on legislation to require labeling of genetically modified food, and tossed money on the floor of the chamber.
Senators were in the middle of a procedural vote on the bill when protesters started shouting out about Monsanto, and tossed the currency into the air.
The presiding officer called for order, and asked the Sergeant At Arms to “restore order in the gallery” as aides were left to pick up the money.
Sixty votes were needed to advance the bill, and the bill survived the procedural vote 65-32, which will limit debate and should allow a final passage vote at some point.
The Organic Consumers Association said activists dropped $2,000 in cash on the Senate floor to show that senators are being influenced by money from Monsanto and other pro-GMO companies.
“When Congress moves to crush the will of 9 out of 10 Americans because they need companies like Monsanto to fund their campaigns, you know our democracy is in real trouble,” said Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director of the Organic Consumers Association. “The corporate lobbyists are totally corrupt.”
Senior GOP aide notes that no one protested when a key immigration bill was blocked by Democrats earlier today. “People are getting murdered by criminal aliens and that’s fine but is Monsanto is for something we’re throwing money on the Senate floor,” one aide said.
Moments earlier, Democrats blocked two bills aimed at reducing violent crimes by illegal immigrants, a decision that was not met with any protest.
